 1st Surrey Rifles regimental badge, as sometimes found on the club's shirts | |||
| Full name | First Surrey Rifles Football Club | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| Nickname(s) | the Rifles, [1] the Riflemen [2] | ||
| Founded | 1869 | ||
| Dissolved | 1887 | ||
| Ground | Flodden Road, Camberwell | ||
| |||
1st Surrey Rifles F.C. was an amateur football club from Camberwell, open to members of the corps, who featured in the early years of the FA Cup from 1872 to 1878 and from 1885 to 1887. [3]
The club claimed a foundation date of 1869, and was open to all members of the corps, unlike the officer-only Royal Engineers. [4] Its first reported match played against external opposition was a 1–0 victory against the Lausanne club at the latter's Rosemary Branch ground in 1871. [5] At least five of the Lausanne players (Davenport, Foster, Dümmler, Dearle, and F. Maynard) [6] were also members of the regiment, and from 1872 played for the Riflemen as the Lausanne association side disbanded.
The club's first Cup tie, in 1872–73, resulted in a 2–0 win over Upton Park, in poor weather, the second goal coming near the close of play. [7] It lost 3–0 in the second round away at Maidenhead, all three goals coming in the second half; it was the Rifles' first-ever defeat. [8]
The club did not win again in the competition until 1877–78, with a home win over Forest School. The only goal came after "Allport, calling on his men for a sort of infantry charge, went bodily through the ranks of his enemies, and Kirkpatrick,taking advantage of an opportunity that presented itself, made a splendid long kick, and although Littlewood tried hard to turn aside the ball with his hand,it bounded off and went under the tape." R. L. Allport, the club captain, had started the game in goal, but soon swapped out. [9]
The club's second-round defeat to the Old Harrovians was its last in the competition for seven years, as the club went into abeyance; both Allport and John Maynard played in the club's first and last matches in the Cup. It was revived in 1884, and entered the national competition again in 1885–86. The 12–0 home defeat in the first round to Clapham Rovers (eight coming before half-time), [10] and the 9–0 defeat in the first round the following year at home to Upton Park, demonstrated that the game had passed the club by; to add insult to injury, one of the Upton Park goals was scored by goalkeeper Evans, who had swapped with forward Inglis after the latter was injured. [11] Although the club remained a member of the Football Association until 1887, [12] it never played competitively again.
The club's colours, according to the Charles Alcock annuals, were as follows:
The club originally played home games at its barracks in Brunswick Road, Camberwell. [14] By 1877, the club was playing at Flodden Road. [15] [16]
Charles William Alcock was an English sportsman, administrator, author and editor. He was a major instigator in the development of both international football and cricket, as well as being the creator of the FA Cup.
The 1871–72 FA Cup is the modern era name of the 1871–72 Football Association Challenge Cup, the first staging of the Football Association Challenge Cup, the oldest association football competition in the world. Fifteen of the association's fifty member clubs entered this tournament, although three withdrew without contesting. Wanderers successfully pursued on 16 March 1872, at Kennington Oval, London the first FA Cup defeating the Royal Engineers by a single goal, made by Morton Betts, who was playing under the pseudonym A. H. Chequer.
The 1873 FA Cup final was an association football match between Wanderers F.C. and Oxford University A.F.C. on 29 March 1873 at the Lillie Bridge Grounds in London. It was the second final of the world's oldest football competition, the Football Association Challenge Cup. Unusually, the final kicked-off in the morning to avoid a clash with the annual Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race which was held on the same day. The Wanderers reached the final without playing a match, as the original rules of the competition stated that the holders would receive a bye straight to the final and other teams would compete to gain the other place in the final and challenge them for the trophy. Oxford reached the final by a walkover when their semi-final opponents, the Scottish club Queen's Park, withdrew from the competition.
The 1872–73 Football Association Challenge Cup was the second edition of the annual FA Cup, the oldest national football tournament in the world. Sixteen teams entered, one more than the previous season, although two teams never contested a match. It began on 19–26 October 1872 and ended at the final on 29 March 1873.
Lausanne was a 19th-century football club that fielded teams playing both the association football and rugby football codes. It is notable for being one of the twenty-one founding members of the Rugby Football Union.
Clopton Allen Lloyd-Jones was an English businessman and amateur sportsman, best known for football and cricket. He played for the Clapham Rovers when they won the FA Cup in 1880 and was selected, but did not play, for Wales as an international.
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